Last Friday, dozens of workers and young people from across Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin demonstrated outside an ICE detention facility in the early morning. We were there, pickets in hand, ready to defend Yesenia Ruano, an immigrant education worker and MTEA (Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association) union member, who was facing the threat of immediate deportation and separation from her twin daughters, who were born in the U.S. 

As a result of the mobilization, Yesenia has been given extra time to complete her Visa paperwork, which is an incredible victory that has prevented her and her children from an unspeakable tragedy. However, this can’t be the end: many more families are being broken up and facing deportations, and a fightback needs to be built! There are thousands across Milwaukee alone who would support an action like this if they knew about it, and it’s important to build for actions like these to channel the widespread energy against right-wing attacks into concrete actions that can win real victories.

Actions like this one in Milwaukee to defend against deportations are incredibly important, and it’s also vital to use them as an opportunity to build a broader movement against all of Trump’s attacks. We should look for ways to link up individual deportation defense actions with direct action to defend trans rights, and connect them with mass protests against Trump’s entire far-right agenda and the capitalist system that created him.

Strengthen The Fight

Voces de la Frontera, one of the largest immigrants rights organizations in the country, had launched a petition in support of Yesenia the day before, which reportedly got thousands of signatures in a matter of hours. Voces then turned out dozens of their supporters, including MTEA members and members of Socialist Alternative to an early morning picket at the time when Yesenia was told to report for deportation. 

It’s incredibly inspiring that many of Yesenia’s fellow union siblings came out to support her, but the turnout could have been greatly increased if the union had sent out a mass message to their membership urging them to turn out for Yesenia. Unions are the basic organizations working people have to defend ourselves against attacks from the bosses and the right wing, and our unions need to actively lead the way in building a mass fightback. 

The rapidity with which deportations can be carried out means we won’t have much time to mobilize, that’s why we need to start planning now. Unions like MTEA have the resources to do wide mobilization using social media and other outreach, and should immediately start building rapid response networks to turn out union members and the wider community to actions as quickly and efficiently as possible. It won’t always be enough to have just a few dozen people show up to stop a deportation, so we need unions and other community organizations to use their resources to build powerful mobilizations. Making these actions as large as possible is the best antidote for the current mood of demoralization many feel, while also making demonstrations safer by increasing their size.

It’s important to discuss the lessons from our victories just as much as our defeats. Our movements can be stronger if we organize democratic discussions on strategy and tactics both before and after actions like this, as part of planning next steps. In order for deportation defense actions to be as safe and effective as possible, organizations like Voces and unions like MTEA will face the challenge of building much wider and broader actions than the one we just saw. Socialist Alternative is ready to contribute to discussions about how the strongest possible movement could be built, along with carrying out the actual work to realize our collective plans. 

Building A United Movement Against Trump

Trump’s right-wing attacks are not only trying to scapegoat immigrants, but trans people as well. The movement for immigrants rights needs to be connected to the broader fightback against Trumpism. We need to be clear that the Democratic Party opened the door for Trump by consistently moving to the right on immigration and trans rights, claiming the economy was “strong as hell” during a multi-year cost of living crisis, and funding the genocidal war on Gaza. The Democratic and Republican parties are both capitalist parties that do the bidding of the billionaires, not the working class, and they are a dead end for our movements. Our movements against Trump need to work toward building new mass-left party of the working class that acts as a home base for organizing the strongest possible fightback against the right wing and for things like good union jobs for all, free universal healthcare with gender-affirming care, and a massive expansion of high-quality affordable housing.

Socialist Alternative stands firmly in solidarity with all immigrants and against these right-wing attacks by Trump, Musk, and their system. The working class and the capitalist system are both international, and the majority of migrant workers who are undocumented in the U.S. today are here because they are fleeing the crises U.S. imperialism has brought to their home countries. 

Not only do U.S.-born workers have more in common with immigrant workers than with billionaires like Trump and Musk, but our unions and movements against oppression are strongest when united across the dividing lines created by capitalism. As socialists, we call on the labor movement and established unions to take up this fight for all immigrant workers, including fighting for DACA to be permanent, free, and easily accessible, along with immediate and unconditional full citizenship rights for all immigrants. This would help prevent the bosses from using super-exploited immigrants to try to drive down their labor costs. 

Socialist Alternative says: 

• No immigrant detentions or deportations. Immediate, unconditional legalization and equal rights for all undocumented immigrants, regardless of their job status.
• No to capitalist divide and rule. Unions must lead the way in uniting immigrants and US-born workers, organizing all workers and forming deportation defense committees in every workplace.
• Build a movement against the destructive policies of US imperialism around the world that drive working-class people to flee their home countries.